|
As we enter the last year of the current cross-authority agreement, it seems a good time to remind ourselves of what the Green Heart Partnership is all about and what we have achieved in the last five years.
Time may have flown since the initial steering group sat down seven years ago and ambitiously began to plan how we could use the arts to deliver against a cross-cutting agenda throughout the whole county. However, in that time our achievements as a county through Green Heart Partnership have been incredible. The Green Heart Partnership has allowed a large number of officers with a broad spectrum of knowledge and experience, the opportunity and time to come together, think and share their ideas in a creative, fun and very productive way.
Although LANS’ project management role has been very important, the success of GHP is not entirely the making of its project managers. Every individual one of us who has taken part in GHP has played an important and creative role in the process. We as individuals are all creative, we are all part of GHP, and GHP cannot possibly continue without us continuing to work together.
The initial leap of faith taken by the first authorities taking on board this new, exciting model of working has been rewarded on numerous levels. Many of the really creative, innovative and high profile aspects of GHP’s projects may never have come to fruition without GHP’s effective partnership working process. In Watford, for example, the completion of the Bushey Arches light installation which has transformed the area would not have been achieved without the excellent partnership which developed between Watford Borough Council and Hertfordshire Highways. It was only through the creative-led team-working process that crucial budget and time-saving opportunities for reallocating resources and sharing work-load were identified. In addition, the innovative, unique and project-specific qualities of GHP’s projects have attracted the support of regional agencies, outside partners and external funding bodies.
The effectiveness of GHP’s creative community engagement approach has also been instrumental in securing substantial sums of external funding across the county. Another example, Stevenage’s Town Centre Gardens redevelopment project was only in a position to secure £2million HLF funding when it had substantial evidence of the community’s engagement and involvement- a challenge on a site recognised by the council as being surrounded by a passive community. The HLF have apparently been so impressed by GHP’s very effective engagement approach and the important, hands-on role that has been given to community members in the process of both designing and managing the gardens, that they have been presenting the project as an example of best practice to potential applicants to the Parks for People fund.
We sometimes fail to recognise the significance of the work that is so closely connected to us, and here in Hertfordshire, maybe we have been slow to blow our own trumpets. However, external agencies and bodies across the UK, Europe and worldwide have not failed to note the importance of what Hertfordshire has managed to achieve through GHP. As a result, GHP has been showcased on an international stage as a good practice example. So significant indeed is the collective achievement of all of us working in Hertfordshire local authorities that the United Nations Habitat programme has recommended that GHP apply for their international best practice award.
We as individuals are all creative, we are all part of GHP and GHP cannot possibly move forward without us continuing to work together.
Chris Hope
Chairman of Green Heart Partnership,
Head of Leisure, Three Rivers District Council
|